The last player hurried to the seat listed on his ticket, then let out a long breath.
The attendant began checking tickets in seat order, starting with the lowest numbers at the front of the carriage. The players seated near the front handed over their tickets, and after a quick glance, the attendant handed them back.
The players who passed the inspection breathed sighs of relief.
The attendant made it through the front half of the carriage without incident. Every player had successfully found a ticket and passed the inspection, reassuring those seated farther back.
Until the attendant reached the thug who had snatched the woman's ticket-
"Your ticket, please."
The thug sat in the woman's original seat and slapped his ticket onto the table for inspection. Every player was watching him now, silently waiting for him to pay for what he had done.
But the attendant gave no reaction, behaving exactly as with everyone else. The attendant picked up the ticket from the table, glanced at it, then put it back and told the thug, "Thank you for your cooperation."
Seeing that he had passed without trouble, the thug let out a contemptuous snort, seemingly showing off and taunting them. Everyone else frowned-
They were just going to let him get away with it?
The attendant then approached the woman whom the thug had driven to a seat farther back and said again:
"Your ticket, please."
The woman shook her head tearfully, indicating that she had no ticket. Just then, someone in the crowd shouted:
"That man up front stole her ticket!"
The thug's face immediately darkened. He located the person who had spoken-the player whose ticket the blond thug had stolen.
He shot the player a vicious glare, silently adding this to his list of grievances, then told